When popular Seattle-based game developer Big Fish wanted to create new videos for their hit mobile game Fairway Solitaire, they partnered with award-winning animation studio Calabash Animation - led by Creative Director Wayne Brejcha and Executive Producer Sean Henry - to shoot a creative hole-in-one.
Mobile and casual games like Fairway Solitaire are a hugely competitive market and developers like Big Fish are always looking at ways to up the creative ante, which is why they came to us to help bring the animation to another level, Henry says. While we've worked in online before, we're primarily known for our broadcast work, and I think that is the sensibility and creative approach Big Fish was looking for on this project. With its classic cartoon style, this represented a great opportunity for us to showcase our skills in this emerging media sector.
A golf-infused version of solitaire - replete with snarky announcers, polite applause from the gallery, and one seriously ticked off gopher -- Fairway Solitaire stands out by offering unique course layouts, and daily content, all while telling a story.
I gave Calabash the storyboards, let them run with it, and they nailed it. These cartoons are everything I had hoped for, and we now have a set of animated stories like no other.
-- Jeff Willis, Big Fish Artist and Creator of McDivot Character
As players progress, they are treated to nine different animated shorts that tell the story of McDivot. Fans demanded more, and Big Fish felt Calabash would be the perfect studio to tell the next chapter. These five videos showcase his romantic misadventures and result in several hilarious sequences.
For Calabash's lead animator Gary Whitney, the biggest challenge was bringing Big Fish's concept to life with the right style animation and tone.
Big Fish provided preliminary storyboards and animatics about how they saw the storyline developing and the specific look of the gopher, which was inspired visually by classic Hanna-Barbara animation. From there, they let us run with it creatively and flesh out the story and comedic elements. Big Fishs hands off approach showed a lot of trust in our work, which I think helped add to the overall quality of the sequences.
McDivot's creator Jeff Willis worked with Calabash Animation to ensure that any new animations set new standards.
With these new episodes, I wanted to raise the bar because our fans deserve the best, Willis said. I wanted these new McDivot episodes to pay homage to my Saturday mornings growing up. After an extensive search, we found Calabash had the right people and talent to help us realize that vision, Willis continued. I gave Calabash the storyboards, let them run with it, and they nailed it. These cartoons are everything I had hoped for, and we now have a set of animated stories like no other.
About Calabash Animation:
Led by Creative Director Wayne Brejcha and Executive Producer Sean Henry, Calabash Animation is the Chicago, IL-based animation production studio, known for its award-winning cel, 3D and stop-motion animation for the advertising and entertainment industries. Calabash Animation is perhaps best known for their creative development of some of America's most beloved brand icons. In addition to working on some of today's top advertising the company has also produced several acclaimed short films. It's 2002 short 'Stubble Trouble'' was nominated for an Academy Award in 2002. Its most recent Botnik will hit the festival circuit in Fall 2008.
About Big Fish:
Founded in 2002, Big Fish is the world's largest producer of casual games; dedicated to bringing engaging entertainment to everyone, anywhere, on any device. Through its proprietary, data-driven platform, millions of consumers seeking engaging entertainment easily discover and play PC and mobile games created by Big Fish's network of more than 500 development partners and its in-house Big Fish Studios. The company has distributed more than 2 billion games from a growing catalog of 3,000+ unique PC games and 300+ unique mobile games, and offers cross-platform streaming games via its proprietary universal cloud gaming service, Big Fish Unlimited. Big Fish's games are played in more than 150 countries on a wide variety of devices across 13 languages. The company is headquartered in Seattle, WA, with regional offices in Oakland, CA; Cork, Ireland; Vancouver, Canada; and Luxembourg.
Web Resources:
Click here for more info on Calabash Animation:
http://www.calabashanimation.com/
Click here for more info about Fairway Solitaire:
http://www.fairwaysolitaire.com/
http://www.bigfishgames.com/download-games/14855/mac/fairway/index.html
Click here for a behind the scenes look at making of game:
http://youtu.be/HxnjAGxhJjY
Click here for more information about Big Fish:
http://www.bigfishgames.com
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When popular Seattle-based game developer Big Fish wanted to create new videos for their hit mobile game Fairway Solitaire, they partnered with award-winning animation studio Calabash Animation - led by Creative Director Wayne Brejcha and Executive Producer Sean Henry - to shoot a creative hole-in-one.
